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Health Care and the Social Safety Net

I will fight to protect the guarantees of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I will oppose any efforts to slash funding for any of these vital social safety net programs. I will advocate for increasing Social Security benefits to keep up with the high cost of living and maintaining the retirement age. When America makes a promise, America keeps a promise.

The Affordable Care Act is an important step towards insuring all Americans, and I will fight any Republican efforts to weaken or eliminate it. I will also stand up to the large drug companies in the fight to keep prescriptions affordable. No person should have to decide between putting food on the table and buying the medication that keeps them alive.

I support the creation of a single-payer health care system, or Medicare for All. We must increase coverage, support small businesses, expand primary care, and lower premiums. Medicare for All is the next step toward addressing the high costs and inequalities in the current health care system.

We as a nation have a responsibility to protect and provide for the most vulnerable among us. Programs and benefits such as nutrition assistance, earned income and child tax credits, and affordable housing vouchers keep millions of Americans who are living on low and fixed incomes safe, healthy, and secure.

Click here to learn more about the bills that I introduced and cosponsored.

More on Health Care and the Social Safety Net

In May, I had the privilege of introducing U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), to 160 emergency nurses who gathered in Washington, D.C., to advocate for legislation promoting a safe workplace for health care employees.

Because Rep. Khanna sponsored a bill — The Healthcare Workplace Violence Prevention Act — designed to better protect workers in the health care settings, it seemed appropriate for me to show him the extent of the problem.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday introduced a Senate bill — the "Stop BEZOS Act" — that would require large employers such as Amazon.com and Walmart to pay the government for food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and other federal assistance received by their workers.

The bill's name is a dig at Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos and stands for “Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act.” It would establish a 100 percent tax on government benefits received by workers at companies with at least 500 employees, the former presidential candidate said Wednesday.

A massive group of House Democrats—totaling at least 70 members in all—signed onto the establishment of a Medicare for All caucus Thursday morning, signaling the increasing feasibility of the policy among members.

The caucus, co-chaired by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), is intended to help “build the evidence base” for a Medicare for All proposal, Jayapal said at a press conference announcing the formation of the group.

Washington, DC – Today, in response to increasing workplace violence in health care facilities across the nation, Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis, 52 percent of all incidents of workplace violence in 2014 involved workers in the health care and social assistance industry. Additionally, from January 2012 to September 2014, more than 100 U.S. health care facilities reported nearly 11,000 OSHA-recordable injuries from workplace violence.

Washington D.C. – Today, Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17), with more than a dozen of his house colleagues, sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, urging him to exercise his existing authority to use patented pharmaceuticals to help millions of Americans with hepatitis C access the expensive drug therapies they need.

NEW YORK, NY — Today, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12) and Congressman Ro Khanna (CA-17) joined student leaders and advocates to seek new ways to tackle the inadequate sexual assault reporting processes currently employed on college campuses nationwide. The members announced a new effort to track sexual assaults on college campuses through a standardized, national survey and discussed ways to combat the Trump Administration’s rollbacks of Title IX protections for student victims. Sexual assault is a pervasive problem all students contend with during their tenure on campus.